Okay… we’ve got a good bit of ground to cover for you guys today as the dust begins to settle from another Comic-Con, so let’s get right to it.

First let’s talk about the titles that were officially announced at (or around) the show, and then we’ll get to the latest rumors and other news on those that weren’t. We’ll start with Batman… [Read on here…]

First up, Warner Home Video has finally revealed the packaging and contents of their forthcoming Batman: The Complete Television Series Limited Edition Blu-ray (SRP $269.97) and also the Batman: The Complete Television Series DVD (SRP $199.70), both due on 11/11. Both will include all 120 episodes of the classic series, fully remastered and uncut. Both will also feature more than three hours worth of special features content, including 6 featurettes (Hanging with Batman, Holy Memorabilia Batman!, Batmania Born!, the Bats of the Round Table discussion, Inventing Batman in the Words of Adam West (on Episodes 1 & 2), and Na Na Na Batman!). Both the Blu-ray and DVD sets will also include an exclusive Hot Wheels replica Batmobile, the Adam West Scrapbook hardcover (featuring never-before-seen photos from Adam’s own archives), 44 vintage Trading Cards, Ultraviolet Digital Copies of all 120 episodes, and an Episode Guide book (synopsis of all episodes, photos from the series and a personal letter from Adam West to the fans). Here’s what the Blu-ray set will look like...

You can click on the image there to pre-order the Blu-ray on Amazon. Note that Batman: The Complete First Season will also be available on DVD only (SRP $39.98) and the series will also be available for purchase in digital format only.

Next up today, Shout! Factory and Scream announced a really great new slate of catalog horror and sci-fi titles for release on Blu-ray and DVD at Comic-Con. Shout! kicks things off with word of a new UHF: 25th Anniversary Edition coming on both formats in November, along with an extras-loaded DVD box set called The Compleat Al. From the press release:

“The Compleat Al is the amazing, hilarious, and almost-true “life story” of “Weird Al” Yankovic, the Grammy award-winning master of musical parody and rock and roll comedy. The Compleat Al takes you behind the scenes, beginning with his early and somewhat formative childhood years; his high school and college days, up through his present-day bout with super-stardom. This concocted chronicle also contains some of the funniest moments from “AL-TV,” footage from his recent trip to Japan, and reveals for the first time the incredible story behind Eat It.”

Meanwhile, Scream Factory laid down the gauntlet with news of forthcoming releases of Dolls, The Dark Half, and Monkey Shines (due November – more in a minute), as well as Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh, Scarecrows, Phantom of the Opera, New Year’s Evil (again, more in a minute), Invaders from Mars, a Max Mad: Collector’s Edition, and an Escape from New York: Collector’s Edition! Most will arrive in stores in 2015. Scream also provided release date updates on additional titles including The Doctor and the Devils (due 11/4), Dolls: Collector’s Edition (11/11), The Dark Half (11/18), Monkey Shines (11/18), Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions: Collector’s Edition (due in December), New Year’s Evil (due early 2015), Hellhole (hopefully 2015), and Dog Soldiers (also 2015). They’ve also restarted pre-orders on Amazon for the Nightbreed: The Limited Edition (click this link for that).

What Fox did NOT announce unfortunately are the long-awaited anniversary Blu-ray releases of James Cameron’s True Lies and The Abyss. Nor did they say a peep about their just-completed HD restoration of The X-Files: The Complete Series. And thus we enter the realm of the Rumor Mill information gleaned from Comic-Con (so take what follows with the appropriate grain of salt)...

Our best industry sources tell us that the delay in announcing True Lies and The Abyss is once again all Cameron-related. The man simply works at his own pace, and he’s busy preparing for the start of filming on his Avatar sequels. Fox will have to announce these BDs soon if they hope to get them out this year (which marks major anniversaries for each film). The next likely opportunity to do so would be October, which is when Cameron is set to begin filming the Avatar sequels. That would also ensure pre-orders are open for Black Friday Week. But we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

As for The X-Files, the delay in announcing an official Blu-ray release might have a little something to do with this: As it’s been reported from Comic-Con, and frankly as we’ve suspected here at The Bits for a while now, series creator Chris Carter is in talks with Fox about returning to the franchise either with a reboot series, or a new feature film, or possibly both. (Read more here at Den of Geek). Waiting for any kind of official announcement about such a project before announcing a BD release of the series makes tons of sense from a studio marketing perspective, but again we’ll have to wait and see.

On the animation front, FUNimation has informed us that they’re still working to get the classic anime series Cowboy Bebop out on Blu-ray here in the States before the end of the year. Apparently it’s a complicated project to get right, but it’s definitely still coming.

In other Con-related news, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has not only revealed the first teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies today, he also revealed at the Con that he’s mulling adding still more extended footage back into The Lord of the Rings films for some kind of eventual Ultimate Middle-Earth Saga Blu-ray release of all 6 films. It would be just a few scenes, but still it’s interesting new nonetheless. Deadline Hollywood has more on that today and you can watch the new Hobbit trailer here…

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Speaking of trailers, here’s your first look at the trailer for Warner’s upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road… to which the only appropriate reaction is: HOLY ****…

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Moving on today, are any of you Star Trek fans? (As if we didn’t already know the answer to that question! How many times have we asked it now?) If so, we’ve got a trio of things for you today…

Let’s close out the week by starting with a little more TV Batman release news.

We posted the Blu-ray pre-order and temp artwork yesterday, along with word that the set carried an SRP of $269.97 (actual Amazon price = $188.98). Now we’ve learned that the DVD set is also available for pre-order today, with an SRP of $199.70 (actual Amazon price = $139.79). The DVD comes with its own cover artwork, which you can see here on the left. Blu-ray is on the right. [Read on here…]

Not done with the Caped Crusader yet. We’ve also learned, thanks to Bits reader Greg R. who keenly spotted a promotional card Warner is apparently giving away (we’d bet you’ll see it at Comic-Con), that the official street for both versions is 11/11. See for yourself here…

Also today, Scream Factory has announced Jeremy Gardner’s zombie horror film The Battery for Blu-ray and DVD release on 9/16. Extras will include audio commentary with Gardner (who wrote and stars, producer/star Adam Cronheim and producer/director of photography Christian Stella, the 90-minute Tools of Ignorance: The Making of The Battery documentary, the Rock Plaza Central at the Parlor: The Music of The Battery featurette, outtakes, and the film’s theatrical trailer.

Finally today, CBS held a promotional part up in L.A. on Wednesday night for the Blu-ray release of Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery on 7/29 (pre-order it here on Amazon). Guests, which included David Lynch himself along with much of the original cast and crew, gathered at the Vista Theater to watch The Missing Pieces, which is essentially 90 minutes worth of deleted and alternate scenes cut by Lynch into its own film-like experience. Dr. Jahnke and I were on hand to see this on the big screen, but we’re not going to spoil that for you. Trust me – you really need to experience it for yourself. Afterwards, there was a reception at The Bigfoot Lounge with drinks and – just as you’d expect – a really good cherry pie. We thought you might like to check out some pictures from the event, so here’s a gallery. Enjoy!

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Credit for most of these – especially the red carpet shots – goes to Casey Rodgers/Invision for CBS HE and Paramount/AP Images. However there are a couple right at the end there (you might recognize Dr. and Mrs. Jahnke and yours truly from The Bits, along with BD producers Charles de Lauzirika, Robert Meyer Burnett, and Cliff Stephenson, Dustin Dean from Lionsgate, and Alec Peters of Star Trek: Axanar fame, and yes… David Lynch) that we owe to the photographic talents of Diana Kingsbury.

On a related note, Burnett was Johnny-on-the-Spot enough to ask Lynch if there’s any chance of a Dune: Director’s Cut. Lynch simply laughed, shook his head and said “No.” as he departed. So there you have the official word on the matter.

Here’s something fun: Warner’s released the first official teaser for the 1966 Batman TV series! The long-awaited Blu-ray, DVD and digital release is officially coming in November. Warner is holding a panel at Comic-Con in San Diego later this month (on 7/24 from 6-7 PM in Hall HD) with Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar to fill in all the details. Here’s the trailer!

BAMMMM! How do you like them apples? There’s no official word yet if it’s just DVD or BD too, but we’d bet on both. It might be a while before we get much in the way of more concrete details from WHV, but the suspicion is that – if we haven’t heard sooner – WonderCon in April is where all could be revealed.

Side note: If any of you have ever wondered what brand of tires The Caped Crusader trusts on his slick ride, well... this photo should give you the answer. LOL.

Well… we’re back from Comic-Con! There’s lot of entertainment news to report from the event these days (including word that the next Man of Steel film will be a team-up with Superman and Batman), but the Blu-ray/DVD release news is excellent and abundant too…

First up, on our own Digital Bits BD Producers panel, we exclusively revealed that Shout! Factory is currently hard at work on a fully-remastered Blu-ray box set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Series. The show was originally finished on 1-inch analog tape, but it was shot on film and star Paul Rubens has all the original 16 and 35mm negative. So it’s all being scanned in full HD and then digitally restored and remastered. Rubens himself is working closely with producer Brian Ward and the Shout! team to create new special features, so it should be pretty terrific. We showed a special video preview during our panel that offered fans a glimpse of the restoration work, with before and after comparisons. It looks absolutely amazing! (We’ll see if there’s any chance we can show it to you here.) The set is expected to be released sometime in early 2014. The exact time frame will depend on how long it takes to finish the restoration properly – they don’t want to rush it, they want to get it right. Watch this space for more details.

Speaking of which, Shout! and Scream announced a bunch of new titles at the Con this past week for Blu-ray and DVD release in the months ahead, including The Horror Show and John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13: Collector’s Edition (both November), Eve of Destruction (TBD), Saturn 3 and a Darkman: Collector’s Edition (December), a Scream Factory TV Terrors Double Feature: The Initiation of Sarah/Are You in the House Alone? (DVD only – December), a Cat People: Collector’s Edition and Night Breed: The Cabal Cut (2014). Not bad!

Also on our Bits panel, producers J.M. Kenny and Scott Devine announced that they’re working on a new feature-length documentary for DC and Warner Home Video called Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics. It will arrive on Blu-ray Disc on 10/25 (SRP $19.98) and will feature interviews with directors Richard Donner, Guillermo del Toro, Zack Snyder, DC’s Geoff Johns and more. It will be narrated by Christopher Lee, who has played more than his share of villains to be sure. Here’s the official trailer…

Also newly announced by Warner for Blu-ray release on 11/5 are A Christmas Story: 30th Anniversary Edition, a Scrooged: 25th Anniversary Edition and an Elf: 10th Anniversary Edition. More on those soon.

It’s worth noting that Warner caused a bit of a stir on the Comic-Con floor this year by promoting Batman: The Classic Series on giveaway bags. (Editor’s Note: Apparently there has also been fake Batman: The Classic Series Blu-ray packaging circulating on the Internet this week, which added to the mayhem – our friends over at TVShowsonDVD.com investigated that.) Here’s the deal on all this: We spoke with studio reps on the floor – and also a couple sources we trust implicitly that we can’t name – and learned that Fox, Warner and DC have apparently worked out their own mutual issues with regard to releasing the series on disc. However, the current problem is that making a deal with the creators’ estates is proving very difficult. As you might guess, they all want a lot of money. So the question is, how much do you have to pay them, and can you then make enough from Blu-ray and DVD sales for the deal to make financial sense? In the meantime, what the bags are promoting is that Warner and DC have begun licensing the likenesses of the series’ characters for products (all except for Catwoman, because of longstanding difficulties negotiating rights with actress Julie Newmar). So the situation remains quite complicated. However, work on this front continues and the simple fact that Warner and DC are even willing to start marketing products based on the 1960s series – now that the Nolan trilogy has come to an end – is at least reason for hope. Anyway, here’s a shot of the Comic-Con giveaway bag that started all the fuss…

Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox announced at the Con that they’re going to release Predator 3D on Blu-ray 3D this December. There will be a regular Blu-ray 3D and a Limited Edition version packaged in a replica of the Predator’s head complete with helmet. Only 500 of LEs will be available and if you pre-ordered them at Comic-Con you got a cool exclusive – a custom scanned and 3D-printed statue of the Predator holding up your severed head and spine. Here’s pix of the regular and LE packaging (again, keep in mind the figure shown isn’t included unless you ordered it at the Con)…

In other news, Paramount finally got around to revealing the official, final cover artwork for Star Trek Into Darkness, due on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on 9/10. Here’s a look at that…

Also, during another show panel at the Con this weekend, the cast and crew of Showtime’s Dexter revealed that the eighth and final season of the series will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on 11/5, along with a Dexter: The Complete Series box set on both formats (expect it to be a replica of Dexter’s box of blood slides). Here’s a look at the BD art for Dexter: The Final Season, as well as Scream Factory’s Assault on Precinct 13: Collector’s Edition and Warner/New Line’s Elf: 10th Anniversary Edition, both mentioned above…

File this next bit in the Rumor Mill‘follow-up’ category, but numerous sources I spoke with while down at the con (including studio, post facility and retail) confirmed unofficially our Rumor Mill posts from a few months ago (see here and here) that Fox is working to bring The X-Files TV series to Blu-ray as part of the celebration for the show’s 20th Anniversary this year. No announcements were made at the Con (despite a 20th Anniversary panel on Thursday featuring creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson), but we believe at least the first season could be announced (in the coming weeks) for release by the end of the year. Remastering work has been underway at HTV/Illuminate in Hollywood – visual effects and some stock footage shots (of the Hoover building, etc) have required upconversion but otherwise original negative is being scanned in full HD. Speaking of which, work on Twin Peaks: The Complete Series on Blu-ray is also well under way at CBS, with a release expected in time for the end of the year or early next. Multiple sources tell us that a deal has been made to allow the inclusion of David Lynch’s Fire Walk with Me film in the package, so fan will at long last be treated to a truly complete set.

Last but not least, a particularly interesting topic of conversation among our industry friends at Comic-Con this year was the likelihood that the original unaltered Star Wars trilogy could finally be released on disc in high quality now that Disney is in the driver’s seat on the franchise. The expert consensus was that it’s quite possible. In fact, it almost seem unthinkable that it wouldn’t happen. Disney has the best marketing machine in the business, and what better way to instantly spark fan enthusiasm and good feelings for the studio’s planned Episodes 7, 8 and 9 feature films than by giving fans what they’ve always wanted too: the unaltered theatrical cuts of Episodes 4, 5 and 6 on Blu-ray? Again, this is just somewhat informed speculation, so consider it Rumor Mill worthy. But every time jaded fans think they’re finally done with this franchise, the Empire finds new ways to pull them back in. The Saga continues, folks.

[Editor’s Note: Let me make it clear, because some Star Wars fans sites (including The Force.net) have apparently misread and then blown these comments out of all proportion today. I’m not saying that we’ve heard this is happening in any way, or that we have special knowledge that Disney is actually considering this. This is me reporting on a conversation repeated several times with industry insiders at this year’s Comic-Con speculating as to whether or not it’s possible or likely. Given Disney’s skill/zeal at exploiting their properties and the amount of money they’ve paid for the Star Wars franchise, the concensus among those involved in these conversations was that it seemed unlikely they wouldn’t exploit so obvious a money-making opportunity. That is all. So stop asking me what the cover art looks like, who’s doing the transfer and what the street date is. ;) ]

All right, back tomorrow (Tuesday) with some pix from the Con and more release news. Stay tuned!